Mary Roach interviewed by Violet Blue, poses with Eroscillator

I took this photo of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex author Mary Roach last Friday at Good Vibrations Berkeley right after our reading from Best Sex Writing 2009.

Now contributor and San Francisco Chronicle sex columnist Violet Blue has interviewed Roach:

VB: Was “Bonk” your pick for the book’s title, or did you want “Boink?”

MR: Bonk was my choice. Boink is a cartoony, silly word, whereas Bonk is almost onomonopeaic, or however you spell that word. Norton actually did some market research on this point. Most people have heard both terms, though more know Boink, it’s true. Those people will simply have to puzzle out what the book is about using the subtitle and the f–ing ladybugs.

“Sex chip” being developed by scientists to implant pleasure!

How crazy/cool is this? From The Telegraph via Scanner

The chip works by sending tiny shocks from implanted electrodes in the brain.

The technology has been used in the United States to treat Parkinson’s disease.

But in recent months scientists have been focusing on the area of the brain just behind the eyes known as the orbitofrontal cortex – this is associated with feelings of pleasure derived from eating and sex.

A research survey conducted by Morten Kringelbach, senior fellow at Oxford University’s department of psychiatry, found the orbitofrontal cortex could be a “new stimulation target” to help people suffering from anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure from such activities. His findings are reported in the Nature Reviews Neuroscience journal.

Neurosurgery professor Tipu Aziz, said: “There is evidence that this chip will work. A few years ago a scientist implanted such a device into the brain of a woman with a low sex drive and turned her into a very sexually active woman. She didn’t like the sudden change, so the wiring in her head was removed.”